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Travis Birge was sleeping upstairs in an assisted living home when the fire broke out on the floor below him. His sister said because of his mental disability, no one was able to wake him up, and he was left vulnerable to the flames.

"(He is) one of the funnest, most loving guy you will ever know," Lalliena Birge said. "My brother's fiance tried to wake my brother up, and she couldn't, so she had to run out of the house and then the firefighters came."

Travis Birge was rescued but not before he was badly injured.

"He has a third-degree burn on his hip, so he's getting a skin graph done today. He's also getting a tube in his throat to breathe," Lalliena Birge said.

KETV NewsWatch 7 spoke to Travis Birge's fiance on Friday, who was visibly shaken. She said no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake him.

"He's just really hard to wake up from his medication," she said. "He gets really blurry minded when he wakes up."

Instead of seeing him as a victim, she hopes the tragedy serves as a reminder of the help people with mental illnesses need.

"Hopefully this is an eye-opener, they need more people there watching," Lalliena Birge said. "The mental disabilities, a lot people think it's their fault or they can overcome it, and a lot of them can't overcome it."

KETV NewsWatch 7 spoke to employees of the assisted living home who said they are shocked by the incident. They said they performed check-ups at the home every two hours. The cause of the fire is under investigation.